Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 28, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free press tuesday. April Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published and printed six Days a week at 300 Carton Street. Winnipeg r3c 3ct by Canadian newspapers company United Telephone 943-9331 second class mail registration number 0286 Donald Nicot publisher John Dafoe Edilo iia Page editor Murray Burt managing Edilma a blow to demagoguery editorials communist party Leader Georges Marchais should wonder about the Wisdom of his anti immigrant demagoguery in the French presidential election Campaign after his poor showing in the first round of balloting. The so called Bedrock 20 per cent of National voting support for a communist candidate proved to be made of Sandstone. He got just Over 15 per cent the party s worst result in Many years. This suggests that pandering to what he believed to be the racist prejudices of French workers frightened about their jobs was not necessarily Good politics. The drop in support also May indicate disillusionment with his cynical decision to abandon eur communism in favor of a promo scow line More appropriate to the Early 1950s than to the 1980s. Gaullist candidate Jacques Chirac the mayor of Paris earned the Reward from his vigorous Campaign of raising the his party s vote share to 18 per cent from the 15 per cent taken by Jacques Chaban Delmas in the 1974 presidential election. His Success with an offering of a Ronald Reagan style blend of tax cuts and reduced government regulation suggests unhappiness among conservative French voters with recent government policies. Socialist candidate Georges Mitterrand showed More strongly than opinion polls had suggested with 26 per cent. This May reflect tactical voting by some of or. Marchais supporters who had observed the powerful surge by or. Chirac that seemed to be giving him a Chance of passing or. Mitterrand for second place. Or. Mitterrand certainly made a grab for the communist vote Selling himself As the Leader of the strongest party of the left in France and suggesting that a vote cast elsewhere meaning for or. Marchais would be a wasted vote by those desiring a president from the left. President Valery Giscard d Estwing led the first round with 28 per cent but this was Down from the 32 he got in the same round of the 1974 presidential election. His performance is close to what was expected and indicates lowered enthusiasm for him among conservative voters attracted to or. Chirac and among those who have been Hurt by the country s anti inflation fight notably Young unemployed voters. Between now and the May 10 final voting round or. Giscard will seek to draw the votes of the Broad right and Centre As or. Mitterrand will seek support from communists and those who voted for other left Wing splinter groups knocked out in the first round. The Odds favor a narrow win by or. Giscard which would be a repeat of the 1974 election result. Politically or. Giscard has been wounded by the Hazard of being an incumbent in difficult economic times As Well As by his increasingly patrician style of government. It is remark Able that he has been unable to make More capital from the bitter divisions among the left the communists have been denouncing the socialists a Sharp change from 1974 when they were so closely Allied that the communists did not put up a candidate to give or Mitterrand a Clear run. Should he win or. Discard would be Wise to consider modifying his policies so As to regain a wider base of support than he now seems to command. Savagery to dissidents two of the Best known of soviet dissidents imprisoned for human rights activities Are reported to be seriously ill in soviet prison Camps. Yuri Orlov a founder of the Helsinki watch group set up to Monitor Moscow s Observance of the Helsinki human rights agreements is reported to be near death Anatoly Shch Aransky another human rights activist is reported to have been placed in solitary confinement at half rations for six months. Both or. Orlov and or. Shch Aransky have been in poor health for some time and other dissidents and their families fear that the treatment they Are receiving is tantamount to a death sentence. Since they were arrested even before their arrests when they were subjected to relentless harassment by the secret police men have been the objects of International attention. Their convictions and the Savage sentences Given to them prompted International protests by governments and private agencies and individuals in the West. Unfortunately All of this has failed to move the soviet government it was Clear from the beginning that the Kremlin intended to make examples of or. Shch Aransky and or. Orlov. In a perversion of a concept occasionally applied in More civilized judicial systems the soviet courts used exemplary injustice in an attempt to convince potential dissidents that the Price for human rights activities is too High in the soviet Union. How Well that policy has succeeded is impossible to say. It has not been a Complete Success however As new dissidents continue to emerge and Challenge the system when others Are sent to labor Camps or psychiatric hospitals. It is an incredible phenomenon when one considers the consequences of dissent for or. Orlov and or. Shch Aransky and hundreds of other soviet dissidents who Are mainly unknown in the West. Moscow has had to pay a Price for its repressive policies. The treatment of these two dissidents has on occasion caused a Cooling in East West relations and raised obstacles to the Progress of detente. Some Western scientific and cultural organizations have ended Exchange programs with the soviet Union programs which the russians value greatly because in the scientific area at least they tend to Benefit the soviet Union the most. The Price however has obviously not been High enough to Force Moscow to Send or. Orlov and or. Shch Aransky to the West. The question now then is what can be done to make the Kremlin relent before the two men die in their labor Camps. The answer unfortunately is that there is Little direct or practical action that can be taken because Western governments for reasons that Are both sensible and self serving will not allow the Fate of a handful of soviet citizens to sever economic or political relations with the soviet Union. Nor probably should they. Right or wrong that is a grim fact of life. Western governments must continue to apply All possible pressure on the soviet Union but if there is any Hope for the two dissidents it May be Ransom. The russians have agreed to it in the past Vladimir Bukovsky was released in Exchange for the imprisoned Leader of the chilean communist party other dissidents have been exchanged for soviet spies and East Germany Sells its citizens to West Germany in Exchange for hard Cash. It would be instructive for the world to know what Price Moscow puts on two sick and suffering symbols of the soviet human rights movement. Journalists and the truth the legacy of a Consul every so often it helps to dig into the origins of symbols and celebrations. Often the two Are linked. In the Case of Manitoba s official Floral Emblem the Crocus the Symbol has remained while the original ceremony held to commemorate it has All but disappeared. This year the ceremony is being renewed through the efforts of the City the province and the Consul general of the United states. In Case anyone is wondering what . Officialdom is doing in helping organize a ceremony to Mark the official Flower of a Canadian province it turns out that James Wickes Taylor who once held the same office now occupied by the present Consul Michael Carpenter had quite a bit to do with selecting Manitoba s official Flower or. Taylor arrived in 1869, not As a Consul but on a secret commission from the . Secretary of state to report on what was known then As the red River disturb he was later appointed Consul but in addition to his consular duties he sent bouquets of crocuses to his friends in Winnipeg. At his death it was found that some 500 women were on the list of those who had received the Consul s bouquets he was one of those men who believed in saying it with Flowers. Or. Taylor died on april 28, 1893. For Many years after that Winni Eggers would remember him by placing a bouquet of crocuses near his portrait which used to hang in the Winnipeg City Hall on each anniversary of his death. Today he is being remembered at a ceremony at the consulate general. Because he became part of the history of Manitoba the ceremony will include Winnipeg mayor Bill Norrie and cultural affairs minister Norma Price. By Frank Walker special to the free press Montreal for one was not surprised when a lie won a pulitzer prize. Given the times and the Circum stances it was almost inevitable. Ner did it upset me As perhaps it should. Good May yet emerge from this sordid affair. Had it not happened in so dra Matic a Way certainly journalism would have gone about its business without facing up to an infection which has been spreading through the Trade. Now if Only from fear and certainly from embarrassment we May take a Long hard look at ourselves. Always lies there were always lies in newspapers sometimes lies told by reporters and editors More often lies told by those from whom the news was solicited. There was always the sharpened i verb the highly descriptive adjective and that most important Little tool the distorting adverb. There was always a tendency to round out the Corners and tidy up Loose ends. There was always the played up and the played Down Story. All this is in the nature of the business. It has been growing however As the new journalism and the new fiction have grown and these in turn Are Only a reflection of our own uncertainties. Facts Are sacred . Scott the great editor of the guardian once wrote. The time has come to redraw the line Between journalism and fiction John Mersey told us in an essay on the nonfiction novel published in the Yale review. We in the Trade have Long realized this and worried about it though not enough. Truth in journalism is As frag Ile As the Means used to gather it and the morality of the times does not exclude the editorial floor. The Story of Jimmy and its author Janet Cooke and the editors who did t do their jobs is not some sudden marring of the Beautiful face of journalism. It is just an extreme example. A Complete systems failure is How the Washington Post described what happened As though the system had worked perfectly before and would continue to work perfectly afterwards the whole squalid business of Jimmy an aberration a Freak a sport. It would be comforting to believe that this was so but there is no editor who has not worried every Day of his work ing life about the tone or the accuracy of some Story in his newspaper has not known or Felt on occasion that something was wrong and who has let it go because of laziness or pressure of time. Not always but sometimes. What happened on the Washington Post is important because the lie went further than most lies go and it went further because of something far beyond the confines of the newsroom. There is an interesting reference which tells much in a comment from one of the editors interviewed the same Bob Woodward of watergate Fame. The had backed off from determining the identity of miss Cooke s sources because her article was t what he called a category one Story involving possible libel. But what has the danger of libel got to do with determining the truth or otherwise of a Story conscience journalism has always staggered be tween the respectable and the disreputable and the test of a Good newspaper is not that it achieves the one but that it keeps As far away As is humanly possible from the other. Conscience and conviction Are As or. Scott once noted an integral part of the Trade which of its nature must have a moral As Well As a material existence. We Are embarrassed these Days by words like right or wrong but we had better Stop being. We must believe in the unclouded face of truth. We must know the difference As or. Hersey pointed out Between the distortion that comes from subtracting observed data and the distortion that comes from adding invented we must not believe that there is no longer any such thing As fiction or nonfiction there is Only nothing that i have seen which has been written recently on the unhappy incident of Jimmy and the Washington Post reduces the discussion to what should be its essence. The truth is the single commodity in which we Deal and any licence is a deviation from it. There Are no great problems involved in the Post episode or in the thousands of similar episodes which occur every Flay in journalism. We had just better believe that the Only Quality which matters in a newspaper is the charac Ter of those who Are responsible for it. Not omniscient the press is not omniscient arro Gance has no place in it we should not Deal in friends and enemies we should Deal Only in the facts and with these As impartially As possible. Impartiality does not imply indifference. To quote or. Scott again indifference is an atrophy of the sympathies impartiality a poise of the the first condition of real understanding is a sympathetic approach. All these Are part and parcel of a Trade which has As two of its original sins vanity and cynicism. Mis takes Are inevitable but not distortions. There is nothing new which needs to be discovered to halt the trend which Jimmy illustrated so completely. A lie is a lie and nothing justifies the telling of it the protected source is a great Dan Ger for it opens up a whole world to the unscrupulous. The Post Story was challenged from the beginning but the challenges were dismissed As the response of interested parties or the jealousy of colleagues. What does that Tell us about the Washington Post though the reactions of that newspaper Are merely the Standard reactions of every newspaper a dose of humility would do none of us any harm. Because perfect objectivity in reporting is impossible that is no excuse for absolute subjectivity or. Hersey again. The habitual acceptance of Little fibs leads to the swallowing whole of world shaking lies. Boiled Down it is simple enough. The writer of fiction must invent the journalist As or. Hersey tells us must not invent. Nuclear myth a recent column by Paul Sullivan propagates the myth that subsequent to the three mile Island Accident Cor relations were established Between radioactivity released and certain genetic and physiological effects in populations around the generating station. There Are several organizations that i am sure would be interested in Exa mining his evidence for such state ments because their own extensive Stu Dies have not been Able to establish the correlation. Some of the organizations Are 1. The Kemeny commission appointed by president Carter to report on the consequences of the Accident which said we conclude that in spite of serious damage to the Plant most of the radiation was contained and the three mile Island actual release will have neg Lible effect on the physical health of the individuals the 2 million people who live within a 50-mile radius of 2. The Pennsylvania department of health which issued the results of a study following statements that infant neonatal Newborn babies and fetal deaths had increased after careful study of All available information we continue to find no evidence to Date that radiation from the nuclear Power Plant resulted in an increased number of fetal neonatal or infant deaths. That simply in t the 3. The nuclear regulatory commis Sion the Pennsylvania department of agriculture and the Federal Environ mental Protection Agency which to Gether investigated reports of dead and deformed animals and vegetation in the three mile Island Vicinity. Their conclusion was that none of the health problems reported at 22 farms could be attributed either to the reactor Accident or to Normal Plant operations at Tim. As the new York times editorialized when the findings were reported the Wise citizen withholds judgment until hysteria subsides and dispassionate investigators assemble the Many of those facts Are available through the Library and the information services at were. To help people gain Access to those facts we have a Zenith number Ze-07444 which can be used toll free from Winnipeg and Brandon to request it. We would even be glad to find that the news Media Are using the number. Metro Dmytriw Public affairs White Shell nuclear research establishment Pinawa Manitoba letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes tellers from readers. Writers must give their name and address. The author s name will be used and letters Are subject to editing. Distorted a few comments on the editorial on Al Salvador and the article on Guate Mala that appeared in the april 7 free press the editorial depicts the rightist government s violence in Al Salvador As a response to leftist violence. In reality the rightist government was around Long before the emergence of the rebel lion and created the social and economic conditions that created it. The opposition forces Are labelled As leftist and in reality the for the major opposition group is an umbrella organization of Many groups consisting of social democrats Christian democrats much of the roman Catholic Church Trade unions student organizations arid professional associations. They represent 80 per cent of the salvadorean population. Are All of them leftist and Jose Napoleon Duarte s government is depicted As the Best Hope for Al Salvador. In reality the inter Church committee on human rights in latin America a 13 Page statement that noted that the regime directed by Jose Napoleon Duarte. Is responsible for the systematic repression and persecution of peasants workers academics and professionals the Church human rights organizations popular move ments and Trade the january 16, 1981 Issue of Commonweal put its Finger on or. Duarte s real role a cosmetic civilian head of state held up to the world As a figurehead of Liberal the editorial in Short promotes much of the . Propaganda line on Al Salvador. As does the article on Guatemala this article infers that Jacobo Arbenz Guzman deposed president of Guate Mala was a communist. In reality he was an elected president whose intention of nationalizing some land belong ing to the United fruit co. Gave the . The rationale it needed to Brand him As a communist and Send in the Cia to get rid of him. Far from being the Only moderate the . Is behind much of the repression in Guatemala. From its overthrow of democracy there in 1954 up to the present Day the . Has supported the right Wing military dictatorships that have ruled there. In its april 1980 world service report the unitarian universalist service com Mittee pointed out that the response of the . State department has been to downplay the True state of affairs in Guatemala and Praise every seeming Concession of the Lucas government. No doubt As the . Increases its support economic and military of the guatemalan dictatorship we shall be getting More misleading and distorted reports like this to justify it. K. Taylor Winnipeg doctors Union your april 20 editorial a Union for doctors purports to identify several Pitfalls associated with the Manitoba medical association executive commit tee s proposal that All physicians in the province contribute to the Cost of fee negotiations. We Are sorry to disappoint you but there Are no Cliff hangers Here. For instance you state membership dues should be proportional to medical income. They already Are and always have been. The Mma has nine membership categories ranging from yearly for medical students to yearly for doctors in regular full time practice. The editorial professes that the Mma must logically accept the related rules and practices of it does. The association is the certified bar gaining agent for doctors employed by the government of Manitoba because a majority of affected members wanted it that Way. Should the May 9 annual meeting decide that an amount equivalent to Mma membership dues ought to be deducted automatically from medicare cheques that will of the majority will prevail As it does in All other democratic institutions. The notion that a doctor who does not wish to pay dues must practice elsewhere is absurd. In most other collective bargaining situations a conscientious objector for Lack of a better term can opt out of the Union but must pay his fair share regardless. As your editorial pointed out All presumably Benefit from pay increases won by the bargaining agent hence they should All contribute to the Effort v finally the free press accusation that the Mma has allocated negotiated increases poorly belies the fact that it is impossible to satisfy All legitimate specially demands when the paying government Agency refuses to pay. The Mma has jealously guarded its right to distribute whatever increases to pre vent the government from pitting one medical group against another. The profession itself is Best Able to Divide up the medicare payment pot even to the extent of sharing insufficient funds. Would any of your readers Trust the government to handle their internal monetary affairs Jake Dyck . President Manitoba medical association Winnipeg she looked into the future then shot herself ;